Around Maryland

Nearly three years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, reports of domestic violence cases in Anne Arundel County have continued to rise, straining the fragile network of safe houses and shelters that attempt to help women seeking safety. According to data compiled by the Maryland Courts, 3,091 protective and peace orders were issued in Anne Arundel County in 2022. The total is an increase from 2,866 in 2021 and 2,576 in 2020. That’s about a 20% jump in calls from around the time the pandemic began.

Carroll County Commissioners’ President Ed Rothstein has been elected to the 16-member board of directors for the Maryland Association of Counties, or MACo, as it is commonly known. Rothstein was installed last week and will serve a one-year term. MACo is a nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy group for Maryland’s 23 counties and Baltimore city. It works for effective, efficient government through education and collaboration; its membership consists of county elected officials and representatives from across the state.

In the latest development in a controversy embroiling an organization that leads Maryland’s second largest city, Columbia Association CEO and President Lakey Boyd said she “has no other choice” but to ask the organization’s board to transition her out. The announcement comes less than a week after the Columbia Association’s board said that it is seeking to “improve the relationship and communications” between Boyd and board members, and presented a plan to the CEO “to accomplish that goal.”

A group of several squeegee workers were gathered in the median of President Street in downtown Baltimore during rush hour Tuesday, a familiar sight in a city where young people offering to wash motorists’ windows for cash have been a fixture for decades. Except they weren’t supposed to be there. As of Tuesday morning, the city’s squeegeeing ban along six major corridors took effect, with Baltimore Police able to deliver warnings to squeegee workers. And in one month, a third warning will carry the penalty of a citation and potential fine for workers ages 18 and above.

Baltimore County Schools Superintendent Darryl Williams has proposed a $2.6 billion budget for the next fiscal year that he says advances equity and excellence for all students and attempts to eliminate disparities in academic achievement. But Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. is already calling the spending plan “unrealistic.” Williams, whose four-year contract ends June 30, presented the budget at a school board meeting Tuesday night.

The Anne Arundel County and its visitors bureau, along with other waterfront jurisdictions and nonprofits, are exploring the possibility of reestablishing a ferry system across the Chesapeake Bay. As tourism begins to reemerge following nearly three years of pandemic restrictions, a consortium that , includes Visit Annapolis and Anne Arundel County and governments from Calvert, St. Mary’s, Somerset and Queen Anne’s countiesis hoping a network of ferries would boost tourism, support local economies and allow residents and visitors to better familiarize themselves with the state and its history, said Kristen Pironis, executive director of Visit Annapolis & Anne Arundel County.

A Maryland teachers union said that while the Montgomery County Public Schools’ new recommended school budget expands universal pre-K and waives fees for standardized tests, it still leaves many needs unaddressed. The Montgomery County Education Association is also calling for free meals to all students and the elimination of fees for field trips and other activities in the proposed $3.15 billion operating budget for fiscal year 2024, Bethesda Beat first reported.

All four routes on the Charm City Circulator are running on a limited schedule as Baltimore transitions to a new vendor that is still hiring drivers and training staff. Circulator services were disrupted since Dec. 30 and was halted for 10 days for the contractor transition, fleet inspections and emergency maintenance that the Baltimore Department of Transportation says is necessary to resume service in the new year.

One door after another opened for career lawman Adrian Baker as he ultimately ascended to top cop in two agencies — chief of the Chestertown Police Department for seven and a half years and superintendent of the state Natural Resources Police since September 2019. On Tuesday, the longtime Chestertown resident closed the door on that chapter in his life when he retired with the rank of colonel with the NRP. “It’s just kind of a personal decision,” Baker said Sunday in a 90-minute phone interview.